In multi-carrier base stations, hubs, and other digital communication applications, a number of independent communication signal paths are combined together during digital processing. The combined signal is then converted to analog, upconverted, and amplified, all in one RF signal path. By combining signals prior to amplification, an expensive signal combiner can be eliminated. However, the resulting combined signal typically exhibits an increased peak-to-average power ratio.
A communication signal with a high peak-to-average power ratio is undesirable because such a signal requires the use of a high-quality linear amplifier capable of amplifying the greatest signal peaks. As peak-to-average power ratio increases, power amplifier costs likewise increase to accommodate increasingly high and increasingly infrequent peaking events. A high-quality power amplifier is an expensive component, and cost savings obtained by omitting an expensive signal combiner may be lost or diminished due to requirements for high-quality power amplifiers. Power amplifier efficiency, as measured by the ration of input power to output power, decreases as the peak-to-average power ratio increases. Accordingly, a need exists for reducing peak-to-average power ratios in communication signals so that inexpensive power amplifiers may be used and so that power amplifiers are used efficiently.
The problem of reducing peak-to-average power ratios in communication signals is difficult to solve. One technique applies hard limiting to the communication signal to prohibit the otherwise greatest peaking events from occurring in the first place. However, this is a highly undesirable solution because it leads to dramatic spectral regrowth. A moderately better, but still undesirable, technique uses a spectrally inefficient pulse shape in the pulse-shaping filter to limit the greatest signal peaks. But, this technique still suffers from an undesirable amount of spectral regrowth. Other complex techniques require such extensive processing capabilities that they are not practical in connection with high-throughput or continuous, rather than burst, transmission applications, i.e., those greater than 0.5 Mbps, such as the transmission of high-speed video data through a single channel or other data through multiple channels in parallel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,761, entitled “Constrained-Envelope Digital-Communications Transmission System and Method Therefor,” by McCallister et al., is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,761 teaches a technique to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio of a single channel communication signal without enduring significant amounts of spectral regrowth. Using the technique of U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,761, the greatest peaking events are detected and compensated by adding spectrally efficient corrective pulses to the communication signal.
While the technique of U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,761 produces adequate results for many applications, it does not work on a composite signal in which instantaneous peaking events result from the haphazard combining and canceling of diverse signals occupying different frequency channels.